24 August
5.30pm
Mayne Hall Foyer

Poetry and the Universities

Abstract
In this lecture Martin Duwell looks at the inter-relationship between poetry in Australia and the institution of the university, an institution which has grown in influence in the study of literature in a culture lacking the counter-institution that a strong tradition of literary journalism might provide. He considers the changes that have occurred in the last thirty five years, producing a picture which, at the turn of the millennium, is not a comforting one in Australia and is particularly bleak in Queensland where a decreasing number of matriculating students have any serious, pre-academic exposure to poetry.

The lecture considers a number of questions, principally with reference to contemporary poetry. Are poetries and universities essentially antagonistic? What are the things a university does to a poetry? Is there an essential response to poetry that academic study shies away from? Since contemporary poets more and more find at least temporary homes in universities, does this affect what they write? What contributions can a university make to contemporary poetry that are undeniably valuable?

About the presenter
Martin Duwell is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Queensland. As well as his academic life, he has been involved with contemporary Australian poetry for over thirty years and journal editor, small press owner, poetry editor for The University of Queensland Press and, until recently, poetry reviewer for The Australian. He was one of the editors of the New Literary History of Australia (Penguin 1988) and has written widely on the work of individual contemporary Australian poets. He is the author of A Possible Contemporary Poetry (Makar 1982) and editor, with R.M.W Dixon, of two anthologies of traditional Aboriginal poetry: The Honey Ant Men's Love Song  (UQP 1990) and Little Eva at Moonlight Creek (UQP, 1994)

The lecture will be chaired by Professor Graeme Turner. This lecture series is kindly supported by the UQ Alumni Association.

Members of the public are invited to attend this free lecture, after which light refreshments will be served.